Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Crabtree Valley Mall

Raleigh, North Carolina - circa 1970s

Interior view of the Thalhimers store and court area at Crabtree Valley Mall, in the 1970s. Thanks to, Phillip Long, for finding this vintage photo in a thesis pdf file online. While the scan quality isn't great (I gave it a little toning to make it easier on the eye), since I haven't yet covered Crabtree Valley Mall here, I'm happy to see this photo. Here's some early history from the mall's Wikipedia entry (the rest of the story is there, too):

"Crabtree Valley Mall opened in 1972 at the intersection of US 70/NC 50 (Glenwood Avenue) and the I-440 Beltline. Original anchors were Hudson Belk, Sears, Miller & Rhoads and Thalhimer's. The mall also included G.C. Murphy and Piccadilly Cafeteria.

From the start, the mall pulled shoppers from all over central and eastern North Carolina. Many of them came to the 251,000 square foot Hudson Belk, which is still the largest store in the complex and serves as a Belk flagship. The mall was remodeled in the mid 1980s and added many upscale specialty stores. If faced remarkably little competition in its market until the 1990s, when Cary Towne Center in nearby Cary doubled in size and spawned a companion mall, Crossroads Shopping Center."

14 Comments:

I have been looking for a picture of the old Thalhimers at Crebtree Valley Mall for I don't know how long. I remember it mostly as Hecht's, when Thalhimers sold out, then as Lord & Taylor, but I only had a fuzzy memory of Thalhimers, cemented with this photo.

I've always been a fan of Crabtree. Heck, I even wrote the history section on Wikipedia :-)

wow, this is a blast from the past. I have not seen Thalhimers in years. Long since gone from the world of retail, it was quite a store in it's day. I loved the beautiful script logo they had. I remember the Thalhimer's flagship in Richmond, Va. That store had a bakery that made the best sweets. The smell would come out into Broad Street. Yes, those were the good old days.

My grandma's maiden name was Thalheim. Spelled a bit differently, but then immigrants often changed their namesupon arrival in the US. Which means that the founders of this lovely department store may be distant relatives of mine.

Funny I mention that no one uses a script logo anymore. I was just checking out an email I received from Saks Fifth Ave and apparently they have recently changed the logo on the webpage. It is now script. No more blocky ugly letters. Weird.

I moved to Raleigh in 1994 and I remember hearing about Crabtree Valley mall and decided to visit. MAN...at that time, it hadn't been remodeled yet into it's more familiar look - it was straight out of the 70's when I first saw it. It was dark with wood panelling and the dark tiles and the place STUNK of Dunkin Doughnuts from one end of the mall to the other! I think the Sears also had a pet store attached near the mall entrance from what I recall. It looked MUCH nicer after the mid 90's remodeling!

I go to CVM all the time. The Thalhimer's there is now nothing downstairs and a Hudson Belk Men's Store upstairs. In 1994, the Sears moved a few yards north to make way for a new Hecht's, whose old space was filled by Lord & Taylor, which closed in 2006. The food court was added in 1984 and expanded in 1994. Don't remember the Miller & Rhoads at all. Anyone know where in the mall it was?

The Miller & Rhoades store was near the end of the mall by Belk. It was 2 stories however was a very small store....not their typical anchor store size. After it closed it was converted to Limited and Structure stores or something like that. I haven't been there since the late 90's so I'm not sure what is in the location now.

I just found this... I remember both. Had to get a slice of pizza from the OJ!! So cool that you remember Wally Aughsley's... I believe the first store was in Chapel Hill. There was also a Hector's on lower level entrance (also from Chapel Hill) God, I love nostalgia!!